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1、大学英语四六级考试精读荟萃100篇(19)Passage Nine(Holmes Knowledge)His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surpri
2、se reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.“You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a m
3、ans brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so
4、that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, theref
5、ore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”考试大论坛“But the Solar System! ” I protested.“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his
6、toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It s
7、truck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a mans inmost thought. D
8、eceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they
9、 might well consider him as a necromancer.“From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis
10、is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it.1. What is the authors attitude toward Holmes?APr
11、aising.BCritical.CIronical.DDistaste.2. What way did the author take to stick out Holmes uniqueness?ABy deduction.BBy explanation.CBy contrast.DBy analysis.3. What was the Holmes idea about knowledge-learning?ALearning what every body learned.BLearning what was useful to you.CLearning whatever you c
12、ame across.DLearning what was different to you.4. What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?AOne may master the way of reasoning through observation.BOne may become rather critical through observation and analysis.COne may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.DOne may
13、become practical through observation and analysis.Vocabulary1. Thomas Carlyle 托马斯卡莱尔 1795-1881美国作家、历史家、哲学家2. jumble (up) 搞乱，使混乱3. lay hand on (upon) sth. 抓住，找到4. at best 的情况下5. elbow out (off) 用胳膊肘挤出，推出6. deuce = devilwhat the deuce is it to me? 这里表示福尔摩斯的厌恶心理。义：这倒霉的词儿与我有什么关系?7. while away the time 消
14、磨/打发时间8. shrewdness 机敏，敏锐，犀利9. far-fetched 牵强附会，不自然10. fathom 看穿/透，推测，探索11. infallible 一贯正确12. uninitiated 对某事无知的13. Euclid 欧几里德(古希腊数学家)14. necromancer 巫师难句译注1. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or
15、at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it.【结构简析】主从句结构，主句A fool 后跟lumber的定从that he comes across。从句so that 中有一knowledge的定从which; or链接前后两个分词crowded out 与jumbled up;但第一个so that 从句又是后面so that 的主句。【参考译文】蠢人把他碰到的每种木材(制家具)都拿进来。这样，可能对他有用的知识都被挤出去;的情况下，也
16、是和其他种种事情混在一起，所以他就很难抓住知识。2. Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way.【结构简析】并列句，连词and后的句中有宾从how much。【参考译文】这片文章稍有炫耀的标题是“生命之书”。它想证明一个善于观察的人通过对他经历到的一切事情都进行真正地系统地考察可以学到多少东西。3. So startling would his results appe
